1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for optimizing the number of power outputs of an electronic control device, of the application specific integrated circuit type mounted onto a printed circuit board, the number of power outputs depending on the application targeted. The present invention more particularly relates to automobile motor control applications, without however being limited to this.
2. Description of the Related Art
Application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, are integrated circuits designed at the request of the user. Some application specific integrated circuits comprise a central processing unit (for example a digital signal processor, or DSP, in the case of an integrated circuit dedicated to the processing of the signal) associated with a certain number of devices depending on the circuit application, and especially power outputs.
The user therefore provides the manufacturer with the application program for the circuit and information on the configuration of the desired circuit, such as the type and number of power outputs necessary for the application. The integrated circuit is then designed on a chip intended to be mounted on a printed circuit board while associating the specified devices with the central processing units, and especially the power outputs.
In the field of automobile motor control applications for example, the number of power outputs required will vary greatly depending on the type of motor, but will also depend on the application desired by the user. However, in order to reduce the development costs for the application specific integrated circuit manufacturers, the diversity of power output circuits has been reduced while at the same time nevertheless trying to cover the largest range of applications. This goal is however far from being attained.
Thus, for producing a power output stage, manufacturers typically use of 16 output circuits, by means of which designs can be adapted to applications requiring 16 or 32 outputs by applying, for example, one or two circuits of this type. For applications requiring an intermediate number of outputs, manufacturers also use 4 output ASIC circuits which allow them to adapt designs to applications requiring 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 outputs, for example.
Accordingly, manufacturers currently have a fairly moderate flexibility in the distribution of the number of power outputs required for the application desired by the user. For example, with the configuration described hereinabove, for an application requiring 22 outputs, the manufacturer will not be able to adapt the design exactly to this number of outputs desired by the user and will have to offer a circuit with 24 outputs to meet the requirement. This lack of flexibility in the adaptation of the number of power outputs to the desired application is a problem for the manufacturers since the users clearly do not wish to pay for additional outputs that are unused and which cannot be made use of in their application.
Moreover, the 16 output and 4 output circuit packages imply a different design of the printed circuit board for their installation. They will not therefore be freely interchangeable on a board without modifying its design, which, for the scalability of the number of outputs, leads to additional development costs and a lack of flexibility in the use of these circuits.
The object of the present invention is to overcome these drawbacks by providing a method that allows the number of power outputs available to be optimized as a function of the application desired by the user, so as to be able to ideally cover a wide range of applications with a great flexibility and low cost.